"Ah, I'm in agony,"

A few days later, in the afternoon, Ji finally couldn't help but start whining once again.

By the time he barely crawled out of the library, covered in dust and ash, he was already at his last gasp.

He was like those kids who foolishly long for the school to reopen before every summer vacation ends; after the initial joy vanished, they found themselves mercilessly ground down by their coursework once again.

Before, he thought he had at least entered the world of Modern Alchemy.

Then, Professor Ye told him through practical actions and relentless questioning and pressure, no, you haven't, you're far from it.

After a round of tests, handing him a paper scored at a mere 59 out of courtesy, she issued a list of books extensive enough to bury Ji and told him his task for the next few months was to finish reading all of them, write reports based on his understanding, and be ready for Professor Ye's sporadic checks and beatings.

"Shallow Discussions on the Four Elements of Alchemy," "Contrarian Views on the Path of Ascension," "Foundations of Modern Alchemy I, II, III, IV," "300-400 Real Exam Questions Analysis from Registered Craftsmen Over the Years," "A Few Discoveries on Waste Recovery in Water Quenching Processing"...

At first, Ji feared how he would find these books in such a huge library, until Ye Chun brought him to a corner, pointed at six bookshelves, and told him, no need to search, just finish all these here.

Noticing Ji's capability for self-study, Professor Ye's teaching style became much rougher, focusing on force-feeding information, then beating him over his weaknesses before making him revise and relearn, to the point that Ji even dreamed of doing practice problems and reciting notes.

Now, every time he smelled the library, Ji would start to experience PTSD.

Such a wicked form of alchemy, who on earth invented it...

His daily schedule was now filled with various harsh trainings.

Firstly, at eight o'clock in the morning, he endured Professor Ye's beating in Spiritual Attack and Defense, then at ten, more beatings during teaching and testing, and from noon to afternoon, even more in the library from various theories. Squeezing time in-between, he would get beaten up in the storage room practicing the Separation Technique.

Except for beatings, it was always beatings.

Beaten until Ji's mind was a blur, sprawling on the ground and writhing like a maggot, he moaned, "Is life always about getting beaten, or is it just during apprenticeship?"

"Young man, don't get discouraged just because you're being beaten up at the beginning," Ye Chun patted Ji's head to comfort him, "because later you'll gradually get used to it."

"I don't want to! I still have my precious youth..."

Ji covered his face and screamed, "Sister, save me!!!"

"Sister has already been crushed by you!"

Ye Chun, who had been up all night writing her thesis, grabbed her messy hair and laughed coldly, "You chose this yourself, idol!"

"When you were rolling others before, why didn't you think about today? This is the downfall of a roll-dog! A most miserable, absolutely wretched, unbearably horrendous death!"

Speaking with venom, she couldn't help but grab Ji's neck and shake him violently, "One day, I'll scatter your ashes in Tianmen Lake!! Ahh!!

In the living room, intrigued by the noise on TV, the little cattle-beast peeked out its head, topped with a little bird, watching the two tormenting each other.

Soon, it lost interest and returned its attention to the TV, ardently enjoying the cooking show.

"That looks really delicious."

As Gloria watched the roasted chicken being taken out of the oven, she began to salivate.

Hearing her, the little cattle-beast looked up, glanced at its own bird-like alchemy creation on its head, seemingly agreeing before nodding eagerly.

Then, the two creatures started to sneak towards Ji's backpack quietly while he wasn't watching, attempting to grab his phone and order some takeaway to try.

Ji saw this and sighed but didn't stop them.

After all, it was better than their previous clever attempt to bring a plastic model at midnight and let Gloria hide in its head to order food, ending up scaring the waiter into fainting—a story that added yet another creepy tale about a horrifying food customer claiming lives at midnight in the Northern Mountain District stories...

Besides, he was hungry too!

He'd just steal the food from them when the delivery arrived, which would surely taste even sweeter.

Ji was under a lot of pressure, so Ji went first!

The reason he had recently become so 'generous,' even daring to order takeout casually, was partly because Ji's financial state was finally not on the brink of bankruptcy anymore.

After all, his trip had not been in vain.

Considering his financial status, from the many materials he had left behind, Professor Ye sold some of the temporarily unnecessary and not particularly precious materials.

The funds had just been transferred to his account yesterday morning.

Now, even after deducting his and Lu Ling's student loans from the money in his account, he still had over 700,000 left.

Saving a bit, it was enough for Ji to lie flat for about a decade.

For the first time in his life, having such a huge amount in his account made Ji extravagantly buy gifts for everyone at home and even purchase a family membership card from the Zhang Family's massage clinic.

He was originally supposed to deduct the money he owed to Sister Laila, but she adamantly refused to send the bill, saying that friends help each other out. Since it was a friend helping, Ji didn't fuss and simply accepted the favor, ready to offer more help if needed in the future.

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